Gail wasn’t bitter about this. She did it with a peaceful and loving heart. It wasn’t a choice to Gail; it was part of who she was as a woman, wife, mother, and Catholic.
During their courtship Gail and George spent a lot of time apart. George was stationed at bases across the country and around the world. Gail had no trouble waiting for George.
“They seemed to get along really well,” Jeanette Cantu-Bazar later said. “My [first] husband was in George’s [business] company.”
Gail and Jeanette were together whenever their men took off on official army business. Jeanette’s first husband was George’s best man at his and Gail’s wedding. This was a tight group of friends. They knew one another’s eccentricities and faults, their loves, hopes, and dreams.
It was 1976 through 1977 when George was called to serve in Germany. He was in his mid-twenties. A year later, Jeanette and her then-husband were sent to the same country. This was the way the movie was supposed to play out: marry a serviceman and be a stay-at-home mother who follows her man wherever the army sends him. Gail and Jeanette had dreamt of this life, and here it was coming to them just as they had envisioned.
“What was difficult for Gail was to be away from her mom. She was very close to her mother. So being away in that sense was tough on her.”
Gail was that rare type of person, however, who could make friends anywhere. She was adorable and loveable, and people picked up on her blissful spirit and good nature as soon as they met her. One of the things Gail liked to do more than anything was to bake. She got a kick out of baking something for someone and then seeing their reaction to what she viewed as such a simple, yet warm, gift. If that person liked the recipe, Gail would offer it up. She had all of her recipes in a neat little box, written out on index cards. She’d often bake goods and send them to George’s office, wherever he was working at the time. She also took on the role of mother hen to the other army wives struggling with missing their husbands.
“Gail loved being married. She loved George. She loved having children.”
The excitement of marrying a military man, having a family, and traveling the world was the image Gail and her friends strove to fulfill—a vision of life they perceived would satisfy their every need and desire as stay-at-home moms and wives.
“But, in all of the excitement, you don’t realize what you’re giving up,” one of those friends perceptively commented later. “You go off, and you think you’re going off and seeing what’s out there. Corpus was a small town then. You wondered what was beyond.”
Gail had come from a home where money was never an issue. Her mother and father had always provided well for the kids. When she and George began living on the salary of a serviceman, though, Gail had to learn how to manage money and budget the household. It was not easy. There was not a lot of money.
“Gail would always do without to make sure George had whatever he needed,” said a former military friend. And some later suggested that George, realizing this, took advantage of it. “It might be just music. He would want to buy some music and she would want something different. She would not say anything and make sure that he got whatever he wanted. She was very self-sacrificing. I kind of call it the ‘martyr complex’ of . . . Catholic girls. Always wanting to do for everyone else. Not to complain. It is what it is. Gail went with it.”
Gail was in love with the idea of “forever and ever.” She wanted that picket fence so bad that she was willing to do whatever it took to install it in her life, while sacrificing her own needs and wants. Once she dove into being a wife, Gail gave the marriage every part of herself.
For the OCSD, the month of October did not produce any type of substantial evidence leading to an arrest. Everyone had theories and persons of interest; yet the
During their courtship Gail and George spent a lot of time apart. George was stationed at bases across the country and around the world. Gail had no trouble waiting for George.
“They seemed to get along really well,” Jeanette Cantu-Bazar later said. “My [first] husband was in George’s [business] company.”
Gail and Jeanette were together whenever their men took off on official army business. Jeanette’s first husband was George’s best man at his and Gail’s wedding. This was a tight group of friends. They knew one another’s eccentricities and faults, their loves, hopes, and dreams.
It was 1976 through 1977 when George was called to serve in Germany. He was in his mid-twenties. A year later, Jeanette and her then-husband were sent to the same country. This was the way the movie was supposed to play out: marry a serviceman and be a stay-at-home mother who follows her man wherever the army sends him. Gail and Jeanette had dreamt of this life, and here it was coming to them just as they had envisioned.
“What was difficult for Gail was to be away from her mom. She was very close to her mother. So being away in that sense was tough on her.”
Gail was that rare type of person, however, who could make friends anywhere. She was adorable and loveable, and people picked up on her blissful spirit and good nature as soon as they met her. One of the things Gail liked to do more than anything was to bake. She got a kick out of baking something for someone and then seeing their reaction to what she viewed as such a simple, yet warm, gift. If that person liked the recipe, Gail would offer it up. She had all of her recipes in a neat little box, written out on index cards. She’d often bake goods and send them to George’s office, wherever he was working at the time. She also took on the role of mother hen to the other army wives struggling with missing their husbands.
“Gail loved being married. She loved George. She loved having children.”
The excitement of marrying a military man, having a family, and traveling the world was the image Gail and her friends strove to fulfill—a vision of life they perceived would satisfy their every need and desire as stay-at-home moms and wives.
“But, in all of the excitement, you don’t realize what you’re giving up,” one of those friends perceptively commented later. “You go off, and you think you’re going off and seeing what’s out there. Corpus was a small town then. You wondered what was beyond.”
Gail had come from a home where money was never an issue. Her mother and father had always provided well for the kids. When she and George began living on the salary of a serviceman, though, Gail had to learn how to manage money and budget the household. It was not easy. There was not a lot of money.
“Gail would always do without to make sure George had whatever he needed,” said a former military friend. And some later suggested that George, realizing this, took advantage of it. “It might be just music. He would want to buy some music and she would want something different. She would not say anything and make sure that he got whatever he wanted. She was very self-sacrificing. I kind of call it the ‘martyr complex’ of . . . Catholic girls. Always wanting to do for everyone else. Not to complain. It is what it is. Gail went with it.”
Gail was in love with the idea of “forever and ever.” She wanted that picket fence so bad that she was willing to do whatever it took to install it in her life, while sacrificing her own needs and wants. Once she dove into being a wife, Gail gave the marriage every part of herself.
For the OCSD, the month of October did not produce any type of substantial evidence leading to an arrest. Everyone had theories and persons of interest; yet the
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